It is common in industry to build wire bundles. These processes often require that their incoming wire be coded with part number information, and cut to segment length, and delivered on individual spools. This results in spending considerable labor and floor space managing and handling sometimes hundreds or thousands of these spools.
The existing spools are made of firm plastic. They may be reworked narrow versions of the spools that the wire suppliers use to deliver wire to their customers. Existing spools may have the following dimensions in inches. Flange diameter: 12.0; Core diameter: 5.0; Center hole diameter: 1.5. Multiple sizes may be used where the width between flanges is 1.5 or 2.75 inches. The wider spool may be most common, its overall width is 4.2 inches.
It should be noted that the coding machines cannot load wire automatically onto the existing spools. The lead end of the wire is attached to the core of the spool by a piece of adhesive tape that is applied by hand. The trailing end of the wire is secured to the flange of the spool with another piece of tape that is also applied by hand.
Each spool occupies a large volume of space whether it contains a long, large cross-section, multi-conductor wire, or a short slender wire, or no wire at all. The carts for transporting these spools are necessarily quite large as well.
The current motor for winding up the spools is a small motor with manual speed controls. In operation, the coding operator codes about 10 feet of wire and stops the coding machine. Next, the operator tapes the lead end of the wire to the spool. The operator winds the slack wire onto the spool. Now, the operator starts the spool wind up motor and the coding machine. The wind up motor is adjusted to provide a small amount of wire tension and prevent slack wire. The operator guides the wire onto the spool so that it winds level. After the coding machine cuts the wire, the operator stops the wind up motor and tapes the trailing end of the wire to the spool rim.
Another common type of spool is made from two formed pieces of thin, stiff, sheet plastic. These pieces of plastic are typically welded together at the hub diameter of the spool. The flanges or rim of the this type spool is held closed by the springiness of the formed plastic. But, the rim is not held closed tight enough to retain the trailing end of the wire. Accordingly, there is still a need to secure the trailing end of the wire to the spool with tape. Also, the flexibility of the plastic allows the operator to open the spool then apply tape to the inside to secure the lead end of the wire to the spool.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus that overcomes the above-mentioned deficiencies by utilizing a self starting spool which includes a self clamping rim without the need of an operator to manually attach the ends of the wire to the spool.